MY LIFE SCIENTIFIC
What do you do?
It’s my job to provide leadership to the international polar
community and to manage and represent the British Antarctic
Survey. That includes overseeing all of our science, our research
stations in Antarctica, the people who live and work there, and our
aircraft and ships. We currently have two ships, and the RRS Sir
David Attenborough which is being built.
And the infamous Boaty McBoatface?
Yes. Boaty McBoatface was the name given to the small robotic
subs that will be launched from the ship. The original naming
competition was run by the Natural Environment Research
Council, of which we are part. I think it’s great that Boaty will be
gliding through the oceans collecting important data to help
explain the role of oceans in climate change.
How many times have you been to Antarctica?
I’ve lost count. I’m a geologist by training. I used to go on regular
field trips and spend months at a time living in a tent. Fifty million
years ago, the climate was much warmer and Antarctica was
covered in dense, green forests. I’d go looking for plant fossils
from this time. If we want to understand future climate change, it’s
important to learn from the past.
What’s it like working in such an extreme location?
I love it because it’s so remote. The tents, which are similar to the
ones that early polar explorers used, are snug and windproof. It
used to take me around three days to really forget about the rest
of the world. After that, the only things I’d concentrate on were
my work, the weather – because it can change so suddenly – and
what we were going to have for dinner that night. Food became a
major preoccupation.
What’s a typical meal in the Antarctic?
It varies. Breakfast would be sugary porridge, washed down by
loads of tea to avoid dehydration. Then we’d walk for miles to
make observations and collect rocks, and stop in a sheltered gully
for a lunch of maybe biscuits, canned cheese and Marmite... and
lots of milk chocolate. Then we’d cook in the tent in the evening. ILLUSTRATION: DAVID DESPAU
DAME JANE FRANCIS
Prof Jane Francis is the director of the British Antarctic Survey. In 2017 she
became a dame, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to polar scienceDame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic
Survey, tells Helen Pilcher about the pleasures of polar
research, and how not to make ice cream in Antarctica
“I love it because it’s so
remote. It used to take me
three days to forget about the
rest of the world”
One of the things you notice is that you lose your sense of taste.
We end up putting tonnes of curry powder in our food to make it
really punchy.Any puddings? Arctic roll?
I did try to make ice cream once. I mixed milk powder, a bottle of
vanilla essence and water then put it outside the tent to freeze.
At -25°C, we figured it would be ready in about five minutes, but
half an hour later it was still runny. In the end, we left it outside for
a week, and it still didn’t set. We later discovered it was synthetic
vanilla, essentially made from antifreeze chemicals. We found it
funny that we couldn’t make ice cream in Antarctica!How does one go to the toilet in Antarctica?
We have a small toilet tent on the edge of camp that has a special
plastic tub with a seat on. When the tub is full it’s sealed then
taken away from Antarctica and incinerated. There are strict
environmental laws to make sure that we leave Antarctica as
beautiful and pristine as we find it. ß